Homemade Christmas

For Christmas 2016 I wanted to give as many homemade gifts as possible.

I gave my Grand Pa a clay Devil I made a while ago. Since he likes witches, I thought it would be a good idea to give his devil a friend so I made him a little witch.

I made all the Christmas cards myself with construction paper, glitter sticks, acrylic gems and my beloved glue gun. I really love how they turned out.

For Greg, I made this picture of him with construction paper. He loves racoons even though he has never seen one in person, that's the tragedy of his life. :p I scanned the image and made him a coffee mug via vistaprint. Now he has his face in a frame AND on a mug.

Via Vistaprint as well, I made these two pictures book. One for my Grand Pa with the film pictures I took on all of our trips from 2014 to 2016. It was awesome to relive these moments making the book and picking out the pictures. 

I made one for my brother from our trip to Memphis.

I made these two drawings in 2005 and I remember my Mom wanted them at the time and I never gave them to her. Christmas 2016 was finally the right time. So I framed them and she got them by the Christmas tree.

It was a very nice Christmas, I'm still waiting on the pictures I took that I dropped at the lab. I really want to share one (four actually) of the gifts I got. ;)

Today I'm 30

Today is my 30th birthday. So far it is a good day (and my day off from work!). :) I got a very nice and meaningful gift from my sweetie and I got my pictures of New York and Haute Savoie back from the lab. 

Greg got me the famous cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. It's such an awesome gift! Last September in Chicago, we found an original version in a second hand book shop. I concidered buying it but didn't. I regret it. Once back I showed Greg the Meryl Streep movie, Julie and Julia, with Amy Adams. He didn't like it much but I love this movie. Anything about cooking or wine I love. 

Last year for my birthday he hid my present in the apartment, so he did the same this year. Actually the books were right under my nose, still in their Amazon cardboard box, right by my sewing machine. We have so many boxes there that I just didn't pay attention. 

For the first time in my life I got tears in my eyes when opening a gift. Usually the only feeling I have when opening a gift is embarassment. All I can think about while ripping the paper is 'You have to act happy about it not matter what it is'. I guess it was such a relief and such a great idea as a gift for me, that I just let my guard down and shed a few tears.

I can't wait to try a few of these recipes! I have to get my measuring cups back from my place first. Isn't it weird that I'm a french girl living in France and following the recipes of an American in a book called Mastering the Art of French Cooking? I think that's funny. :) And I'm not afraid to bone a duck! 

The neighbor's window. I love it.

As I said I got my pictures back today. I gave a bunch of rolls to get develloped and in the lot there was this roll. I started it a loooong time ago. Most of the pictures were of Hopi, my cat. He loves to pose. But one of the picture was pretty old.

There was a picture of Bebop, my previous cat, who died in September 2012. (Sorry about the fingerprints, I scanned the pictures in a hurry) I don't really know how I feel about it. I'm just glad I have this amazing little creature that is Hopi in my life now so I don't think that much about Bebop.

That's it for today June 19. We'll be ordering sushi shortly (yeah, we got to celebrate! I'm having wine right now) and I have to get my posts ready for the rest of the New York pictures!  

Have a great week end because it's right around the bend! ;)